Greek Goddess
by erinnn
Summary: On the romantic island of Santorini, James is women-watching when he sees a redheaded beauty that looks oddly familiar... One-shot!


**A/N: This is just a little thing-a-ma-bob I thought of while sitting in my Ancient History class. My obsession with Ancient Greece and my obsession with Lily and James sort of merged to form this idea. I like it. I think it's kind of cute. But I'll let you be the judge of that! Please read and review!**

**DISCLAIMER: I own absolutely nothing.**

The sunset on the island of Santorini was breathtaking. The sky was painted with bold strokes of purple and orange and looked exactly like a painting of purple and orange streaks. The waves were crashing up against the shore with the soothing wave-crashing sound only crashing waves can make, and there was a single lone gull flying overhead.

But James Potter wasn't paying attention to the shockingly beautiful Greek seascape. He was paying attention to the shockingly beautiful Greek women.

He was, after all, a seventeen-year-old teenaged boy with those raging boy hormones.

"Hey there," he catcalled in what he thought was a seductive voice. "Hey there, pretty lady!" He was being obnoxious, rude and chauvinistic. But that was only because none of the women could understand English. They couldn't tell if he was being a prat or not.

He loved every minute of it.

The Potters were on their summer holiday in sunny, tree-less Greece. A country where James had no friends. No one to talk to. He thought that he would be _so bored_.

"But son," his father had said, "Greece is such an interesting country! Why, think of the Parthenon! Atlantis! The sculptures! The wine!"

James had surly replied, "The Parthenon is in _Athens_. We're going to Santorini. And I'm not even remotely interested in Atlantis. We've already been there. Besides which, the sculptures are mostly of naked men and _clothed_ women. And you and mum won't let me even touch the wine, after that little incident at New Years…"

"But James," his mother had said, "Santorini is such a lovely place. It's called the honeymoon island, after all."

James almost regurgitated his dinner. "_Honeymoon island? _Does that mean I'm going to have to see you and dad be all… all… _honeymoon-y_ together? All lovering and doting and ridiculously drunk?"

His parents had flushed and told him that they were going to Santorini, and that was that. He had been extremely put out for a good long while, right up until he set foot on a Grecian beach the first morning he arrived in the country. That's when he saw all the bikini-clad women in their more-than-half-naked splendor.

He hadn't moved since.

"Oi! You're looking mighty fine today!" he called out.

The woman walking past James gave him an odd look before a man—presumably her husband—came lumbering behind her. The large man eyed him suspiciously and James gave him a cheeky smile.

The whole hey-they-don't-understand-English-so-I-can-do-whatever-I-want thing was working out quite nicely for him.

For the first time since ten o'clock that morning, James glanced at his watch and with a start realized that it was nearing eight p.m.. Upon seeing the time, his stomach grumbled with hunger. With an even larger start he realized that he had not eaten anything except for the ultra-fluffy pancakes he had for breakfast. He really was ridiculously hungry.

It was amazing how much energy leering at women could take out of a guy.

He was about to move from his rather comfortable patch of pebbly beach when a stunningly gorgeous girl caught his eye. She was like an ancient Greek sculpture—absolutely perfect. Perfectly proportioned. But unlike the stone statues, this very fine specimen was nicely tanned and scarcely clothed.

Real life was _so_ much better than boring old slabs of stone.

"Hell-_o,_" he whispered to himself.

In a split second, he decided that he was going to be bold and daring. He was going to be cheesy and stupid. He was going to actually go up and talk to the girl. She wouldn't understand him anyway. She was probably from some weird country like France. And maybe she would think his British accent was so adorable she would gaze at him longingly and then take him by the hand and snog him silly.

But first he would need to go up to her. He quickly got to his feet and walked toward her. "Excuse, ma'am?" he said, touching her shoulder. "I was just _so _stunned by your beauty I had to make sure you weren't a vision…" He trailed off as the saw a familiar pair of green eyes.

"Oh, bugger," he said, his cheeks immediately flushing a deep scarlet. "You speak English."

Lily Evans was looking directly at him. Lily, with those startlingly clear green eyes. Lily, with that gorgeous auburn hair. Lily, the girl he had fancied for most of his Hogwarts career.

Oh, bugger. Bugger, bugger, bugger.

"Potter?" she said in a shocked tone.

There was an awkward silence, then, "What're _you_ doing here?" they asked in unison.

"Well, I'm vacationing," said Lily defensively.

"So am I!" James retorted.

The two Britishers lapsed into another silence. James realized his hand was still on her shoulder and removed it very slowly.

Whatever embarrassment he felt was slowly draining away. So what if he looked like an idiot in front of Lily? He should have been used to it. He did it often enough. And besides, how could he concentrate on being embarrassed when a scantily clad Lily Evans stood in front of him?

Lily must've noticed that his eyes were wandering. She began to blush and cleared her throat. "I, er, I better be going," she mumbled.

"Oh," said James. "Do you, er, do you have to be anywhere in particular?"

She regarded him apprehensively. "Why?"

"I was just wondering if you'd want to come to a late dinner with me," he said, a tad bashfully.

Lily remained silent and James began mentally preparing himself for the big, fat, inevitable "NO!" He had just decided that he would go back to girl gazing after her rejection when Lily answered.

"Why not?"

James' jaw dropped open. He was acutely aware that it was rude, but he couldn't help it. Had Lily really just agreed to have dinner with him? _Really?_ Was there something in the water? What was going on?

"What?" Lily said, laughing at his expression.

He shook his head and closed his mouth. "It's nothing," he told her, astonished that they were getting along so well. Or, as well as they could in the five seconds they were in each other's company.

And as they walked to the Muggle hamburger bar, they actually had a civilized conversation. If anyone from their school had seen them, they would've thought that Lily was under the Imperius curse.

"So why're you on Santorini?" she asked him politely.

James kicked a pebble. "My parents are on a sort of second honeymoon, but they had to drag me along. They don't trust me enough to leave me at home."

Lily's lifted a curious eyebrow. "Why not send you off to a relative, or Sirius' place?" she asked, genuinely interested.

James stopped walking and looked at the sky. "Sirius lives on his own, so my parents wouldn't trust me there, either." He paused and looked at her. "And the rest of my relatives… they died."

Lily stared at him, her eyes looking incredibly sad and sympathetic. "James…" she began, unsure of what to say.

He resumed walking. "It's fine," he said. "It's all in the past now." He shot her a weary grin. "So what're you doing here? Just a regular 'let's-get-out-of-stupid-Britain' vacation?"

Lily shook her head. "My cousin is getting married to a Greek guy—I swear he looks like a smoldering Greek god—so we had to come here. I'm really enjoying it though. It's much nicer than Britain."

James nodded in agreement. "I'll say. The sun actually shines, the girls are all in swim suits…"

Lily scrunched her nose. "Disgusting."

"You're in a swim suit," he pointed out.

"So are you!" she shot back.

James look down and remembered that he was wearing only his swim trunks. He smirked. "So you like the view, huh, Evans?"

The two reached the restaurant and sat down at the counter.

"You wish, Potter," she snorted. She picked up a menu and nonchalantly said, "But—correct me if I'm wrong—I believe you said that you were stunned by my beauty?"

James almost choked on his own spittle. "Yeah, about that…"

She giggled. "So you think I'm as lovely as a vision? Like Aphrodite or something?"

"You're embarrassing me!" he told her, his cheeks flaming.

Lily couldn't stop laughing. "I can't believe you did that," she managed to gasp out in between breaths. "It's just… it was so…" She broke out into gales of laughter once more.

James sat there, astonished that he had made her laugh. He, James Potter, made Lily Evans laugh. Lily, who had considered him her sworn enemy for life. He considered that moment to be the highlight of his life.

His life up until then obviously hadn't been too interesting.

Her laughter died down as they ordered her food and she looked at him as if it were the first time that she actually _saw_ him. It was kind of giving him the heebie-jeebies.

"What?" he asked, suddenly self-conscious.

Lily cocked her head. "You're funny. You're a git, but a funny one."

"Thanks?"

She flipped her hair back and grinned. "Not a problem."

Was she _flirting _with him? Had the universe suddenly turned the tables in his favour?

When their food arrived, their conversation came to a halt. But unlike before, the silence was comforting. James decided that he could get used to it. He could get used to being around Lily.

But he couldn't figure out why she was being so nice to him.

Afterward, with their stomachs nicely stuffed, Lily picked a little pebble off of the table.

"What's that for?" James asked curiously.

"I had a nice time tonight," she said by means of explaining.

James felt something jump in his stomach. "You did?"

"Yeah. I guess I was wrong about you, Mr. Potter. You're not such an insensitive, egotistical idiot."

He felt his heartbeat quicken. "That's right. I'm not."

"This is my souvenir," she told him. "To remind me that I shouldn't hate you, to remember Santorini and to make me smile when I remember that I'm your Greek goddess," she added, winking at him.

With that, she laughed and walked off, leaving James alone with his pounding heartbeat and an excellent view of her derrière.

He was pretty sure he was in love.


End file.
